Classic Revenge (19 page)

Once they were seated, Joe leaned over and whispered, "Edna, if you want, you and I can go grab a hamburger and sit in the parking lot until Millie and Trish
get to ask their questions."

Edna sighed. "No, that's not necessary, but thank you,
dear. We won't be here long, and actually, it's not too bad
in here" She squeezed his hand and smiled. "I'll be
fine."

"If you change your mind, you just let me know,
okay? We can always think of some excuse to leave."

Trish picked up a menu from the center of the table and surreptitiously looked around. There were booths
along the walls with tables placed comfortably in the
middle. Wide glass panes completely adorned two of
the walls, giving the area an open feel. Twilight was fast
approaching, and from her vantage point she could see
soft, muted lights from traffic along the highway and
from houses in the nearby neighborhood.

Friendly conversation flowed steadily from the other
patrons of the restaurant, some of whom were obviously regular customers. Glancing at the menu, she was
surprised at the wide variety of entrees they had to offer. She could get used to this questioning stuff if they
continued to hold their meetings in restaurants.

Suddenly Edna coughed, buried her face in her menu,
and lightly kicked Trish under the table. Trish glanced
from her to Millie, who nodded imperceptibly. Mary
must be coming toward them. Joe picked up his own
menu and leaned toward Edna as he asked if she knew
what she wanted. Satisfied that they truly represented just a group of friends out for an evening, Trish drew a
calming breath and looked down at her menu. They had
all agreed that she would begin the subtle questioning,
and she only hoped she didn't pull a Millie and jump
the gun out of nervousness.

"Are you ready to order?" Even though she had been
expecting Mary to approach from behind her, Trish
jumped slightly at the friendly voice. She glanced up
quickly and smiled. "I think so. Millie, why don't you
start?"

Mary Chavez was younger than Trish expected,
probably in her early thirties. She had a great smile
with dark, flashing eyes and long, silky hair once again
pulled back from her face. She was also very good at
her job, making helpful suggestions while Millie placed
her order. It wasn't quite the impression of an inefficient, angry bookkeeper that Trish had envisioned.

"Thank you, dear," Millie said when she finished
placing her order, handing Mary the menu with a smile.
Suddenly, Millie's smile faltered and the color drained
from her face. She was staring at Mary as if she had just
seen a ghost. Nobody else seemed to notice Millie's
strange behavior as Mary began to take Edna's order.
Concerned, Trish leaned forward and caught Millie's
eye. Millie swallowed and shook her head slightly, but
before Trish could determine what was wrong, it was
her turn.

She ordered the shrimp special and closed her
menu, noticing Millie's hand shake slightly as she
reached for her iced tea. With no idea what was wrong,
Trish had no option but to play out their plan, but she
was worried. Millie's behavior was completely out of
character.

As soon as Joe completed his order, Trish leaned for- ward with what she hoped appeared to be an uncertain
smile and said to Mary, "You look so familiar ... ah!"
Startled, Trish glanced around trying to figure out which
one of her friends had just kicked her painfully. Since
both Edna and Joe were looking at her as if she had lost
her mind, it had to have been Millie. Trish sighed. Who
else was there?

Millie was staring at her with eyes wide and lips
pinched. Shoot, Millie was going to blow this if she
didn't stop acting so strange. What was wrong with her?
With everyone else they had talked to, Millie had been
strong and gung-ho, even aggressive. Now she was acting as if she was scared to death.

Trish sent Millie a silent warning with narrowed eyes
before she turned back to Mary, forcing her smile back
into place. "Have we met before?"

"Oh no," Millie exclaimed loudly, "I'm so sorry!"
Millie's glass lay on its side, tea spreading quickly over
and down the table.

"Don't worry about it, dear. Everyone has an accident now and then," Edna said soothingly as she quickly
reached for a handful of napkins from the dispenser on
the table and tried to blot up the mess.

"I'll go get a rag and a fresh glass of tea," Mary said
sweetly. "This happens all the time."

As soon as Mary left, Millie leaned over and swatted
Trish on the shoulder. "Can't you take a hint?" she hissed.

Trish's mouth dropped open as she rubbed her shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that Mary Chavez is wearing earrings that closely resemble a pair that I know
Susan had!"

"What?" Edna asked incredulously. "Are you sure?"

"I'm as sure as I can be. The last thing we need to do
is bring up Sam's name right now."

Joe lowered his chin and cleared his throat. Mary was
back at the table. "Here we go," she said, placing another
glass of tea in front of Millie. "I'll have this cleaned up
in no time." As Mary wiped the table, Trish looked at
the earrings she wore. Small, elegant diamonds encircled a single pearl in the beautiful studs. They were a
little dressy for the uniform Mary was wearing, Trish
thought to herself, but that didn't mean they didn't belong to her. Trish sat back and looked at Edna, noticing
with dismay that everyone at the table was staring at
Mary's ears.

"Um," she said quickly, trying to think of something
to distract Mary before she looked up and noticed she
was the center of attention. "Could we have an order of
cheese sticks also?"

"Of course," Mary said as she straightened. "I'll get
those for you right now."

As soon as Mary was out of earshot, Millie leaned
forward. "Well," she whispered, "what do you think?"

Edna's voice trembled. "I've seen those earrings on
Susan before." Joe leaned over and placed a hand over
hers. "Honey, don't jump to conclusions. More than
likely Mary just has a similar pair."

Millie shook her head slowly. "I can't swear to it, but
I think those are the ones Sam had made especially for
Susan for Christmas last year."

Trish looked over her shoulder to make sure Mary
wasn't near. "The only way we'll know for sure is to get
Sam to look at them"

"And how do you propose we do that-yank them
out of Mary's ears and take them over to Sam?"

Trish really hated it when Millie resorted to sarcasm.
"Of course that's not what I meant!" she replied irritably. "Sam will have to come here"

Joe looked over Trish's shoulder and cleared his
throat. "Oh, look," he said loudly, "it's coming just in
time. I'm starving."

Mary walked up to the table and placed the hot cheese
sticks with four plates in the middle of the table. "Enjoy
the cheese sticks," she said with a smile. "Your meals
will be ready soon. Can I get you anything else right
now?"

"These look beautiful," Millie said dramatically.

They looked beautiful? Trish was hungry, and she
did enjoy good food, but she couldn't ever remember
referring to something she ate as beautiful! Edna was
looking at Millie curiously, and it was all Trish could
do not to grin. But that temptation was quickly replaced
by stunned surprise as Millie said admiringly, "They're
almost as lovely as your earrings, dear."

For a moment nobody moved at the table except Millie, who nonchalantly reached for a cheese stick. Mary,
thank God, seemed unaware of the tension. "Thank you.
You don't want to know what I had to do to get them,
though," she said with a laugh. "Let me know if you need
anything." Still grinning, Mary turned to wait on another
table.

Small shivers crept up Trish's spine. She looked
around the table. Millie's eyes looked like they were
about to pop out of her head. Edna's mouth was hanging wide open. Joe's lips were pinched in a tight line.

It took a few minutes, but soon life returned to the
table. "Oh, my goodness," Edna whispered, "was that a
confession?"

"I don't think that's very likely," Millie said wryly.
"But it is rather telling, don't you think?"

Trish opened her mouth but nothing came out. Taking a sip of tea, she cleared her throat and tried again.
"I'm not sure. We may be reading too much into this. I
will agree, though, that it was a very strange remark."

"Here comes our dinner," Joe said softly. "Everyone
try to act normal."

If Mary noticed that everybody at the table was sitting stiff and silent with plastic smiles on their faces,
she didn't let on. She served the meal quickly and efficiently, bringing all the anticipated condiments without
having to be asked. She looked at the remaining cheese
sticks. "Would you like me to box those up for you?"

Edna looked up sharply, her eyes wide. "Please do
that," she said in an uncharacteristically high-pitched
voice.

Mary's eyebrows rose a fraction, but she made no
comment as she reached for the uneaten appetizer. "I'll
be right back."

Trish looked down at her plate. The shrimp platter,
which had sounded so good just a short while ago, now
held no appeal whatsoever. Evidently, she wasn't the
only one who had lost her appetite, either. Scratch that.
Surprisingly, Millie seemed to have lost her earlier fear.
She was digging into her grilled chicken dinner as
though she hadn't eaten in a week.

Trish glanced at Edna, who shook her head slightly
and pushed her plate back. "I'm not very hungry," Edna
remarked.

Joe sighed. "I hate to admit it, but neither am I. We'll
get these boxed up to go and eat later when we've
calmed down"

"You have to eat," Millie said between bites. "We
need to keep our strength up. Finally, we have a tangible clue"

"We don't have anything except more suspicion,"
Trish said quietly. "And you know how Henry feels
about our suspicions. He's not going to listen to us. We
need to get Sam to verify that the earrings belonged to
Susan."

"Trish is right," Joe said. "I wish there was another
way, though. It may not be as easy as we think. We
don't know how often Mary wears those earrings, and
we don't know how she's going to react when she sees
Sam. Or, for that matter, we don't know how Sam is going to react if he believes those earrings are Susan's.
Remember, he's a very hurt, angry man."

"I still say that's a good thing," Millie said, finally
pushing her plate away. Nobody else had touched their
food. "He should be angry. Look at everything the murderer has taken from him."

It was a somber group that left the restaurant a few
minutes later. Mary had packed up their untouched
food, clearly puzzled as to why only one of them had
eaten, especially since they had all proclaimed that they
were starving when they'd sat down.

So focused on their agenda, Joe and the ladies hadn't
noticed the woman sitting alone at a nearby table. She
had been watching them for quite a while and had even
shamelessly eavesdropped on their conversation. She had
been amused by their obvious tactics initially, but there
wasn't anything funny about them noticing the earrings.

What a sweet twist of fate, the woman had thought,
that she had been in the restaurant when those four had
come in. This visit had turned out to be very informative. Very informative, indeed, she had grinned as she
had watched Mary walk away after refreshing her iced
tea, the earrings sparkling in the light.

Millie was right, Edna thought as they walked over to
Trish's early the next morning. They did need to check
out every possibility on what could have occurred the
morning Susan was killed, but after finding Mary
Chavez last night, it was hard to focus on anybody else.
However, as Millie had pointed out a few minutes
before, it could be that Mary Chavez was only involved
in the theft of Sam's safe. Admittedly it wasn't a likely
scenario, but it had to be considered.

Well, there wasn't much they could do right now on
that front, anyway. Joe was on his way over to Sam's
house to talk to him about the earrings and the part they
wanted him to play to verify if, in fact, they were
Susan's or not. Once that was established, they could
then discuss what to do.

Until then, there was still the lead on Tom Jones to
check out. "A good detective never leaves a stone unturned," Millie said.

Trish rolled her eyes. "We're not detectives, much
less good detectives."

"How can you say that after what we found out last
night?" Edna asked.

"We may not have found out anything."

"That's exactly why we need to keep investigating,"
Millie said pointedly. "Come on, Trish, get the directions to Tom Jones' place and let's get going. It's not going to take that long. We're just going to drive by his
house and get a feel for the area. That's all."

Trish had just applied the brakes at the stop sign
when Edna noticed Larry Thompson turning onto their
street. She waved gaily as he slowed and pulled his car
up alongside them. "Don't say anything about Mary
Chavez," Millie warned suddenly.

Trish rolled down her window and smiled. "Hello."

"Good morning, ladies," he said, his drop-dead gorgeous smile warm and friendly. "Where are you heading off to?"

"The grocery store."

"The dry cleaners"

"The bank"

Larry's eyebrows rose as any normal person's would
at their fumbling response. Trish silently groaned as
she forced a laugh. "Actually, we're going to all of the
above"

"Ah, I see," he said, shaking his head, his brown eyes
dancing. "What you really mean to say is that you're following up on a clue you don't want me to know about"
He waved away their automatic denial with a smile. "I
was just going to stop by and let you know I haven't forgotten you. Nothing suspicious has turned up on Mark
Wilson, so I thought you may have someone else in mind
you wanted me to check out"